TikTok and the sound of silence
After a series of lengthy discussions, the world’s largest record company, Universal Music Group (UMG), has decided to withdraw its content from TikTok, a move that is creating a lot of problems for users who are suddenly unable to add the music of many of their favorite artists to their videos, while old videos that used that music are now silent.
UMG says the reasons for the withdrawal are threefold: first, TikTok is not doing enough to prevent the spread of algorithmically generated deepfakes that jeopardize the reputations of the artists it represents; secondly, that it needs to take adequate measures to prevent copyright infringement (over 200,000 complaints by the company in the first half of 2023 alone); and finally, that it does not pay enough in royalties.
The artists represented by UMG, which is the fruit of the merger and consolidation of many other record labels, range from the multi-award-winning and ubiquitous Taylor Swift (over 12 million videos on the platform with the hashtag #taylorswift, plus many hundreds of thousands with her album titles or her songs), along with Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Bob Dylan, Coldplay, Elton John, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, U2, the Weeknd and thousands more. It’s pretty hard to come up with a name from the last half century or more that isn’t represented by UMG.
